Discussion Questions for Friday, September 9
After reading the questions below and deciding which one(s) you want to respond to (you're expected to respond once every three classes, on average), click on the appropriate thread to write your response as a reply. If you have not yet registered an account with wikispaces and requested to join this site, you will need to do so to post a response (see the How to Wiki page for instructions).
Looking back to Huizinga, why do we call a play a "play"? Is Anna Deavere Smith's Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 a play? And is she a playwright? A journalist? Something else? Be sure to quote particular examples in your answer.
Twilight is an example of non-narrative drama. It does not tell a story in the traditional sense: a central protagonist working toward a well-defined goal against the obstructions of an antagonist, or a framework defined by an initial situation and disturbance, action rising to a climax, and the revelation of a changed situation. Or does it? Would you say it does, and if so, what kind of story? And if you would say that it doesn't tell a story, is it simply a collection of interchangeable monologues by unrelated characters, or does it develop according to some other non-narrative principle?
After reading the questions below and deciding which one(s) you want to respond to (you're expected to respond once every three classes, on average), click on the appropriate thread to write your response as a reply. If you have not yet registered an account with wikispaces and requested to join this site, you will need to do so to post a response (see the How to Wiki page for instructions).